Age of Innocence
by Nightjar
Summary: At the end of the world, all that they can do to survive is keep on running. [OneShot] [HarryZacharias, RonHermione, GinnyNott]


Miss Moony would like to say that she doesn't own Harry Potter and that she had no help with this story from Miss Wormtail, Miss Padfoot or Miss Prongs.

This story is a one-shot, and it contains slash. Darkfic, too.

Loosely inspired by AbbyCadabra's _Paris_, Tim Winton's brilliant novel, _Cloudstreet_, and GreenCookie's beautifully tragic fic, _This Is My World, Where Is Yours_. The bit about Fred and George was based on the last line in gmth's _And Let You Go_.

------- I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good -------

**Age of Innocence**

Summary: At the end of the world, all that they can do to survive is keep on running.

The house is in a sorry state: two stories, and too many rooms to count, but there's already three families living there, and Remus is only able to rent two rooms.

Harry goes in first, and Ron, Zacharias and Ginny follow. Each of them carries a small rucksack containing a few specified items: Harry's has potions ingredients, Ron has a small amount of food and two water bottles, Zacharias has a kettle and a cooker – one of those things that Muggles use when they go camping – and Ginny has a change of clothes for each of them, plus Remus, as well as a bottle of lighter fuel and a box of matches.

Remus arrives later. His bag contains what little Muggle money they possess, and the wands that they can't use.

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The other three families – all Muggles – leave them alone for the most part. They don't question the bad smells and screams that seep through the house like melting chocolate – slowly, and staining every surface they touch – every full moon when Zacharias and Ginny make a weak concoction of the Wolfsbane Potion over the mini-stove in a kettle, and attempt to keep Harry and Ron as far away as possible: to minimise the damage.

Remus, Harry and Ron don't question it, either, when they attempt to make tea in the morning every day for the next few weeks, and they find that the brew tastes of aconite (monkshood, wolfsbane).

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Harry, Ron and Ginny are out looking for odd jobs they can do to earn some quick coin, and Zacharias is at the house, looking after Remus when Terry joins them. He stashes his wand in Remus' bag, and then takes over from Zacharias, so the blonde can go job-hunting with the others. Terry is better than any of the others at nursing, so no one minds the change. He has some things of his own with him, as well as the things he managed to nick when he escaped from the Death Eaters – most of it useless, but some interesting stuff, too: Harry's invisibility cloak, and the Marauder's Map (which is already open, and they all know they won't be able to close).

For a while things are looking up: Terry knows more potions than the others, and Ron thinks that maybe, with the Map and the cloak, they might be able to sneak into Hogwarts to rescue Hermione, Tonks, and Fred and George.

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Harry, Ron, Ginny and Zacharias eventually manage to scrap together enough money to get one of them on a train to Hogwarts, and it is decided that Ginny will go, because she's the least likely to be recognised – except for Terry, but he's still recovering from his escape. They give her her wand, and the cloak and the Map, and make sure she knows not to use magic until she's in an area where lots of people are, or already have.

Life goes on as normal for three days, and then Ginny comes back with the twins in tow: Tonks is dead, and she couldn't find Hermione. Fred has a vivid red gash across his face, and George is missing his right hand. They all know that the twins will never bother trying to switch places again.

Ginny hands her wand back to Remus, wishing she didn't have to, and Terry stows the Map and the cloak back in his backpack.

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That night Ron wakes up screaming, and he tells Harry he dreamt that Hermione and Tonks were dead. Harry looks at him sadly, and then he sees Fred and George curled up with Ginny in the corner, and he knows that it was no dream.

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They become close in the days, weeks, months that follow, in a way that only those living on borrowed time can. Family, almost, or Harry and Remus would call it Pack: Remus is the Alpha, and all the others are just scared cubs.

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It takes the Death Eaters another month to find them. There is chaos, and then _avada kedavra_ and George falls down dead. Harry thinks that Malfoy was always a bastard, wasn't he?

They still can't use magic, because then all the other Death Eaters will come too, and then they'll be overwhelmed. Malfoy on his own they can handle… they hope.

Eventually, Zacharias manages to knock Malfoy out, and when they assess the situation, they find that Terry is dead, too, and Fred is critically injured. They others are pretty much unscathed, but Fred dies two days later of blood loss, because none of them know how to make a potion that can heal internal bleeding.

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They manage to get Fred, George and Terry's bodies into Remus' van without any of the Muggles noticing that same afternoon, and they leave the house together, their party exactly the same as it was when they arrived. Malfoy, they leave tied up in the corner of one of the rooms that they'll never be able to live in again.

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They bury Terry and the twins in an open field just outside the town, and Ginny places Terry's wand in his cold, lifeless hands. Ron carries Terry's bag, and Remus places a knut on each of their three comrades' eyes, for the boatman.

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Zacharias and Harry are practically nose-to-nose in the van, and Harry's gone cross-eyed trying to focus on the other boy's face. Zacharias smirks, and Harry asks if he's about to be kissed. Zacharias answers with an affirmative. Of course.

Ron sees them through the rear-view mirror when he looks back to check that Remus and Ginny are still sleeping. He snorts, thinking that Harry's hero-complex and Zacharias' bastard-complex compliment each other nicely. It's something that Fred or George would've joked about, he knows, if they were still alive.

-------

By the next morning, Remus is strong enough to go house-hunting – provided that one of the boys goes with him.

He and Harry leave and come back at nightfall, with two additions to the party. They couldn't find any place cheap enough, and Nott turned up with a tired but living Hermione in tow – to prove that he's reformed.

Nott and Hermione climb into the van and, after making a distasteful comment about the living arrangements, stows his and Hermione's wands in Remus' bag, and they both promptly collapse in exhaustion.

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When she wakes in the morning, Ginny snipes at Nott and bickers. Ron thinks that he might join her, if he weren't so preoccupied with Hermione.

Nott's less tired than Hermione, and, as such, he's able to pay more attention to Ginny, and he gets irritated quite quickly. He wonders why he's condemned himself to spending the rest of his short life with a Hufflepuff and a load of self-righteous bloody Gryffindors. Zacharias tells him that Houses hardly matter any more, now that they need to be brave and loyal and clever and sly all as one. They should all be one House, Remus jokes, and Harry says that they'll call themselves Lupins, after their Founding Father.

Remus fixes him with a stare that tells him it's not funny, but none of them can bring themselves to stop laughing.

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Ginny thinks that Nott is a snake – or maybe something even more unpleasant, like a worm or a slug – but in the dark of night, at the back of the van, when all the others save Harry are sleeping, she talks civilly with him, and finds that she can't be bothered to care about that.

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Harry doesn't know why it comes as such a surprise to Ron when Ginny and Nott start dating – or as close as they can get to it, while they're on the run. There's a fine line between love and hate, after all, or maybe it's just that Harry's more perceptive than most people.

Zacharias thinks that Ron and Nott are just as bad as each other, when it comes to being emotional dunces. He and Harry are much better at relationship-related things.

Ron thinks that that's just because they're gay, and says so.

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They wake up the next morning when a rock comes through the van window and lands on Ron's head. Ron curses, and when they look out of the window there's a mob outside, and they can hear the noise level rising as it approaches.

Zacharias picks up the rock and sees that there's a piece of paper wrapped around it – a WANTED posted, showing pictures of Terry, Ron, Hermione, Zacharias, Fred, George, Ginny, Remus, Nott, and Harry's picture is the largest.

Nott's suspicions are now confirmed. The Muggle world knows of the Magical one, and the results aren't favourable ones.

The sound of the mob swells outside, and Ron clambers into the front of the van hurriedly, leaving Hermione in Harry's care. Harry looks out at a plump, blonde-haired woman who keeps trying to tell the mob to leave them be. Then she turns and meets Harry's stares, and she backs away in silence.

The engine roars and the van pulls out into the road quickly. Tears swell up in Remus' eyes as they leave the town for good, and the angry mob contained within it.

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The forest is dark and damp and reminds Ron so clearly of the Forbidden Forest that he jumps at every small sound, and constantly looks around nervously, expecting an acromantula or twenty to jump him at any moment.

They find two habitable clearings, but Remus and Nott think it best to bypass the first one because the ground's littered with fag-ends, so they set up a makeshift camp in the second. The van is their shelter, and Ginny clears most of the dirt off a few tree branches, so they can hang out their wet clothes to dry.

Hermione watches as Ron tries in vain to strike a match for the fire, and thinks fondly back on the days when life and love was so much easier for them. Everything had gone downhill from there, though, with first the fall of the Ministry, and then the battles for Hogsmeade and Hogwarts itself. Ultimately Voldemort had won the war that day, as all those who opposed him either died, or were always too scared to oppose him, but the man – Monster – himself was long gone, leaving behind his Death Eaters, more fearsome than ever out of desperation.

Harry leaves the camp before they go to sleep, to look for firewood. He comes back only a few minutes later with something even better: aconite. There is a plant of it growing nearby, and it will easily last them for about five full moons.

On the next one, Remus goes hunting in wolf-form. Harry and Zacharias go with him, and together they manage to bring back enough meat to last them another month.

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Their lives slip into routine and they are happy, for the most part.

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They know that it will be short-lived.


End file.
